Authors: Danielle DeVor
Tor walked over to the counter to pick up her own cup. I stuck my tongue out at Tabby. She returned the favor. Leave it to Tabby to get on Tor’s good side in two seconds.
We were quiet for a few minutes. Tor came and sat down in her chair. Finally, Tor looked at Tabby and gave her a condensed version of everything. I’d expected Will to do it, but having another woman in the house had changed Tor. I just wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Tabby turned to me after Tor was finished. “What is it you want me to do?”
I wiped my mouth with a napkin. I didn’t need a chocolate mustache. “First, I want you to check out that room upstairs, then I want you to see what you think about the mirror up there. I also think it would be a good idea for you to meet Lucy in person, and tell me your impressions.”
“Tonight?” she asked.
“No.” I twitched. “Definitely tomorrow.”
Lucy’s laugh echoed again throughout the house.
I woke up with a particular smell in my nose, the smell of sunshine and quiet. I’m sure people would think me strange that when I say that I can smell quiet, but I can. For me, quiet smells like Tabby’s perfume and the smell of her hair. I opened my eyes and sat up. Tabby was still asleep, her arm tucked under her head.
She always looked so innocent in the mornings. I really didn’t realize how much I’d missed her. Actually, that’s a lie. I’ve missed her from the moment she left me. I missed her innocence, and I missed her reactions to the boneheaded things I do. I wasn’t being sappy, at least I didn’t think so. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was stupid for screwing things up with her.
I really can’t say that it was any one event, but what I’d figured out over the years was that I didn’t appreciate her enough, and I was an idiot. She was better off without me. I knew that. It was just hard to admit to it sometimes.
After a bit, her eyes popped open, and she looked at me
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
I laughed. “You.”
She sat up and moved her hair out of her way. “Jimmy, you really are weird, you know that?”
“I’m weird for watching you sleep?” I asked.
She snorted. “Yes! So, what do we do now, you lovesick moron?”
I felt my face grow red. Good one, Jimmy. Real Smooth. “Well, yesterday when I got up, Will allowed me to shower in his bathroom. I guess we’ll do the same today.”
Tabby nodded.
We grabbed out clothes and toiletries. I stepped out into the hallway and walked to the kitchen. I poked my head in. Will was sitting at the table drinking coffee. Tor wasn’t in the room.
“Morning,” Will said to me.
“Where’s Tor?” I asked.
“She went to check on Lucy. Tor said her breathing sounded labored.”
“Shit,” I said. “Want us to wait and see if we need to help take Lucy to the hospital?”
Will looked puzzled. “Wait for what?”
I held up my things. “Tabby and I need a shower…”
Will laughed. “Go ahead. I don’t care. Might not hurt to make it quick though.
“It okay if we use your bathroom?” I asked.
“That’s fine.”
I turned back out of the room and walked towards Tabby. I motioned for her to follow me with my head.
I led her upstairs and to the right to Will and Tor’s master suite.
“Just when I think this place can’t get any fancier, I see this,” Tabby said, pointing at the bathroom.
“I know. It’s crazy isn’t it?”
She nodded.
“You go first,” I said.
She smiled and went in, closing the door behind her.
I hoped Lucy was okay. From everything I’d been told, this thing that was happening with Lucy was what was causing her poor health. Since there hadn’t been anything like allergy symptoms when Lucy first entered the house, I didn’t think that something organic about the house was making her sick. If it was mold, it would have been pretty apparent early and the symptoms just didn’t match. Of course, it could simply be that Lucy was sick because she was sick. Kids get stuff every day. Maybe Lucy had a genetic problem that hadn’t been diagnosed. Kids with genetic problems die early a lot of the time. It was just another item to add to the mix. So many things were lumped together. It was going to take a lot of work just to organize the symptoms against the “supernatural” stuff.
Soon Tabby was done, and I rushed through my shower. When I was finished, Tabby followed me out. We dropped off our things in the library, then we headed back to the kitchen.
Tor was standing, leaning with her back against the stove. There were bags under her eyes that hadn’t been there the day before.
“How’s Lucy?” I asked.
She looked at me, her eyes sad and rimmed with red. “I think she needs a doctor.”
I nodded. “Do you need Tabby and I to do anything?”
Tor shook her head. “Go ahead and do what you’d planned. Will is readying Lucy so we can take her to the emergency room.”
“Do you think it’s pneumonia?” Tabby asked. “I overheard Will telling Jimmy that Lucy was having trouble breathing.”
“I don’t know what it is,” Tor said.
###
After Tor and Will left with Lucy, Tabby and I returned to the library and sat down on our respective sofas.
“Jesus Christ,” Tabby said. “What a mess.”
I chuckled. “You’re telling me? I really don’t know what’s going on. I wish I did.”
She paused for a moment. “So, tell me about this room.”
“Freakiest place I’ve been in awhile, that’s for sure.”
“How so?” she asked.
“I think you just need to see it. I doubt my descriptions will do it justice.”
She stared at me.
“No, really. Get your witchy stuff and let’s see what you can do.”
Tabby laughed. “My witchy stuff. You never change, do you?”
###
I led her out of the library, down the hallway and into the dining room. She paused, I assume to look at the dining room.
I cleared my throat. “It’s up here.”
She followed me up the staircase into the attic. When she stepped into the attic, she looked like a little kid just dying to explore. We wandered along, Tabby peering under sheets, until we reached the other side of the house. I didn’t have to tell her where the room was. She walked straight to it.
She froze, literally in front of the door, almost as if a string had pulled her there and had gotten stuck.
“I see what you mean,” she said.
I let her do her thing. She pulled out a bundle of sage from her bag and lit it. Then, she opened the door to the room. She paused again when she stepped into the room.
A gust of cool wind blew, making her hair fly around her face. She began chanting and moving the sage around. At first, it looked like nothing was happening, but then her sage stopped burning. There was no smoke, nothing. It just stopped.
“I’ve never had that happen before,” she said.
I scratched my head. “Maybe it’s trying to keep you from cleansing it.”
Tabby pulled a lighter out of her pocket and tried to relight the sage, but it wouldn’t light. When she flicked the lighter, the flame would appear, but as soon as it got near the sage, the flame would go out again. Tabby growled.
“All right,” she said, staring out of the room. “If it doesn’t want me cleansing it. I’ll do something else.” She stepped out of the room and closed the door.
She started walking towards the other side of the house, so I grabbed her by the shoulder. “Did you see the mirror?” I asked, pointing at it.
Tabby turned around and looked where I was pointing.
“Oh my God,” she said.
“What?” I asked.
She crouched down and turned it over. “Do you know what this is?”
I tried not to be stupid. “Well, it’s a mirror…”
She swatted me on the leg with her hand.
“Ow,” I said.
She ignored my distress.
“It’s much more than that,” she said. “It’s an old mirror. It’s a silver backed mirror.”
“So?”
“So!” She stood up. “So! You see the black paint?”
“Yeah.”
“This mirror was a receptacle.”
I leaned over and looked at the mirror again. “What do you mean?”
“Spirits, demons, whatever can be trapped in a mirror, but they can only be trapped in a silver backed mirror.”
“Why does it matter?” I asked.
Tabby put her hands on her hips. “Because silver has purifying properties, that’s why. It is an ancient thing because it’s an element. Silver has been used to fight evil elements for a long time. Only a very powerful witch could have done this.”
I really had no idea what she was talking about. “You mean like a spiritualist?”
Tabby stared at me. “No, I mean a witch. Who told you about a spiritualist?”
“You won’t believe me,” I said.
“Out with it.”
“The town librarian.”
1950
O’Dell stood in the foyer of Blackmoor. He hated being there, hated the feeling of the whole damn place. Ever since Jones had killed Black, there were reports of strange things going on in the house. The Black brother wanted to sell the house, but wouldn’t step foot in the place.
Left it all up to O’Dell. The Blacks still ran the town, even though they didn’t live there. If he didn’t take care of this, he knew he’d be out of a job.
Finally, he saw a black Ford pull into the drive. She was the last resort. The minister couldn’t do anything about the feel of the house. The priest had tried to exorcise the house, but had had a heart attack during the ritual. Another priest died trying to fix the damn house. It had taken some time, but he’d found Eldora Williams. Eldora Williams was the most revered spiritualist in the country. She’d helped police from all over on a variety of cases – murders mostly. If she couldn’t help, he didn’t know who could.
He’d tried to get the other Black to just burn the damn place to the ground, but Black wouldn’t have it. “If I can’t fix it, let him live in the fucking thing.”
Mrs. Williams got out of her car. She was dressed in a large black mink coat with a hat to match. She opened the back door of her car and pulled out a large black satchel.
O’Dell opened the front door of the house and waited.
Mrs. Williams smiled at him, adjusted her hold on her bag and walked through the doorway. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she froze.
“A powerful spirit you’ve got here,” she said in a voice that sounded like a croak.
O’Dell coughed. “Ma’am, I need you to move so I can close the door.”
She looked at him, a puzzled expression on her face. Finally, she stepped aside.
O’Dell closed the door.
She sniffed and began walking towards the staircase.
“Wait, ma’am,” O’Dell said. “Can I take your coat?”
She ignored him and began walking up the stairs.
“Damn woman,” he mumbled. He followed her. She didn’t stop until she entered a bedroom in the east wing. The Blacks hadn’t used it in years. The furniture was covered in dusty sheets.
Mrs. Williams sniffed again, then she looked upwards. “What’s up there?” she asked.
O’Dell cleared his throat. “Attic. I think there’s a storage room up there too.”
She nodded. “Take me to it.”
O’Dell took a deep breath and took her back downstairs.
“You sure I can’t take your coat?”
She shook her head. “Just take me to it.”
O’Dell led her through the dining room and to the steps that led to the attic. Once they got up the stairs, she practically knocked him down and darted towards the extra room.
She pointed at the door to the storage room. “That’s the heart.”
O’Dell furrowed his brow. “The heart of what?”
“The heart of the house of course.”
###
He watched her prepare, never having seen anything like it. Then, she entered that storage room. Mostly, he heard bumps and growls coming from inside the room.
“Mr. O’Dell!” She yelled from inside the room. “Get in my bag and bring me the mirror.”
O’Dell raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. He got the large oval mirror out of her bag and crept over to the door.
He took a deep breath. His heart was pounding in his chest—lub dub, lub dub. He grabbed the doorknob and jerked open the door.
A huge black cloud filled the room. It glowed with a eerie purplish brightness. The smell of the thing drifted towards him. He gagged.
“Mr. O’Dell!”
He jerked his head around and saw Mrs. Williams motioning for him to hand her the mirror. He handed it to her and could have sworn that the black mass had eyes that stared at him.
He backed out of the room and closed the door behind him. He didn’t care what she did, just as long as she took care of that
thing.
Sleep would be a long time coming from now on.